This post is being written for OiNK’s Pre-Release section of the blog, and this is about as pre-release as you can get! We’re going right back to 1978, in fact. Back to OiNK co-creator and co-editor Mark Rodgers and writer Graham Exton’s university years and a special project they created, certain parts of which may be of particular interest to you pig pals out there.
“The Literature Degree that Mark and I were studying for at Leeds Uni had a publishing module, so we figured it would be fun to do a comic,” Graham tells me. That comic was Germs, the title an anagram of their initials (Graham’s middle name is Stafford). Looking back, it’s a fun little insight into the developing talents of both before they got their breaks in the comics industry, and you can read the whole thing in this post thanks to Graham.
Graham is very honest about what he thinks of the end result. “We did everything wrong, like drawing a whole page on A4 paper (not Bristol Board), not using scripts, lousy lettering, and cramming in so many pages we couldn’t break even when we sold it on campus,” he says. “Mark’s mum came to our rescue by charging 50p a copy to each customer at the British Legion she ran, then taking them back when they were ‘finished with’. She was brill, Our Shirl.”
Shirl wasn’t the only parent to help out. “My mum did the typing for the contents page on her fancy word processing computer,” recalls Graham. “Probably Ventura or some such. She had to figure it out herself as no one knew what a word processor was. It was the most professional part of the comic! So, like Ian Dury’sClever Bastards we had help from our mums. We learned a lot about publishing, which was great for Mark in particular.”
Eight years before OiNK hit shelves (six years before the team completed their dummy issue for the publishers as a proof of concept), there are hints within Germs of what was to come when they’d once again have the same level of creative freedom. While reading it you can tell that unique OiNK humour is in there, albeit in an early guise. There are plenty of spoofs, very random moments, strips referring to themselves as comic strips, even the way some of the titles are drawn feels familiar.
Mark and Graham were learning their craft, a craft they would both excel at, culminating in the comic we all love so much to this day
However, that’s not all. There are a few actual precursors to specific OiNK strips in here. The Mad Monk from #28 actually appears here in pretty much the same form, albeit drawn by Graham instead of Davey Jones. There’s also The Jolly Wedding, another one by Graham that would transform into a smaller three-panel strip drawn by the legendary Tom Paterson in The OiNK! Book 1988.
There are more too. “I liked Mark’s Police Vet strip [which would be developed further for the first book and #64], which involved getting a stuck Rhino out of a tree by chucking a brick at it,”says Graham. “Mark liked my Mad Monk strip, and had Davey Jones illustrate it for OiNK. Mark may have plundered a few others. There was one about a beach encounter where someone got hugged to death [turned into a page drawn by Lew Stringer in OiNK]. You can tell Mark and I grew up in the 60’s, when Bax and Ken Reid were at their wackiest and most violent.”
Yes, it’s rough around the edges but Germs should be seen in the context of when it was created, as Mark and Graham were learning their craft, a craft they would both excel at, culminating in the comic we all love so much to this day. There are some little treasures here though. Personally, I giggled at the array of different copyright notices, the depiction of an “Asst. Director”, all of the brill Bermuda ‘Narna (“Yoo hoo”) and the rendition of the 1812 Overture!
A rather simple Transformers and Visionaries cover by Jez Hall in comparison to the comic’s usual high calibre of front pages belies another excellent issue inside, while our characters’ dialogue on Dave Elliott’s cover for The Real Ghostbusters doesn’t make much sense given the image, which has been pointed out to me is a spoof of a Fantastic Four cover. This still doesn’t make the speech make sense and who out of this comic’s young audience would know an obscure FF cover? Weird choices abound.
In the American Transformers story the Mecannibals may have looked silly when we first met them but by now they were already among the best original creations the comic ever had. Pure evil with a comedic slant, I loved them! In the UK story the animated corpse of Starscream is the real highlight of the issue. Not confirming whether he’s actually living or dead, this had me glued to the story as a kid! Check out the link below to see Andrew Wildman’s depiction of him including some brilliant in-jokes.
In our other comic, main story Snack Attack had no dialogue whatsoever, playing out like a very funny silent comedy. A bold move for the strip that took up the most space in the issue. Spengler’s Spirit Guide tied in with this week’s prose story and included a spoof history of horror comics, while the Dead True series detailed a spooky urban myth tale centering around jealousy. Another great read all round.
Nice to see Visionaries actually getting a mention this week. In fact, Transformers gets a good chunk of the checklist to detail all of its strips beyond just credits for once. While the Mecannibals were a great addition to the story, the all-female warriors were sadly depicted as cringingly poorly as you can imagine. A bit of a spoiler about the true nature of Starscream there too! Also, you’ve just got to love some of the strip names the Real Ghostbusters team came up with.
Action Force Monthly and Death’s Head are the same issues as last time and if you haven’t checked out the latter before then you simply must read the highlights in the review from the comic’s real time read through, link further below. Such a funny story, full of slapstick. The big issue of the week was the latest Doctor Who Magazine, although I’m not sure if The Ice Warriors were the stars of the strip or a written article.
I’ve had the pleasure of reading some of the classic issues of the magazine for the blog and their rather unique output while the show was in its wilderness years. You can check out the latest of these in the Death’s Head section of the blog, an issue he made a tiny cameo in a few years after his comic ended. That’s us for now. Next time, we’ll finally get our next contemporary comics advert. It’s for a comic that really didn’t appeal to young me despite it starring a favourite cartoon and comics character. You can see what it was in just seven days.
Saturday 8th November 1986. The day everything changed for me. I’d browsed my friends’ humour comics but they never made me laugh enough and all looked the same. This was the day I’d discover a truly unique comic for myself, one that genuinely made me roar and had me obsessed from that day onwards.
I could get like that as a kid. In all honesty, I can still become fanatically obsessed when I discover something new that speaks to me, it’s one of life’s pleasures. OiNK was the latest in a long line of childhood obsessions and one that has stayed with me for four decades, to such a degree that I’ve written this mammoth blog and am launching my own writing career off the back of it. All because of a silly comic featuring pigs, puns… and plops!
Like most of my greatest childhood loves I’ve a huge amount of personal memories associated with OiNK. Yes, there are direct memories of enjoying the content of the comic itself and I’ve whittered on about such things throughout the real time read through. But I’ve so many other wonderful, more personal memories that I simply wouldn’t have 40 years later without this comic.
Take for example those who are no longer here. I remember my cousin giving me a few of his back issues when we visited them one evening in 1987 and as I sat looking through them next to my nanny she clocked the cover to #3 (by Tony Husband) with its bare pig bottoms floating in space. I wasn’t sure how she’d react. She often complained about violence and swearing in movies… but she looked at it, then at me, and let out a little schoolgirl-like giggle.
For many years my mum and her best friend May (who I called Aunt May despite not being related) would take it in turns every Thursday to make lunch for each other and spend the afternoon gossiping and drinking coffee. During what I called OiNK’s Golden Age (the last few months of 1987) I discovered it had begun arriving into the shop every-other Thursday instead of Saturdays as it had previously.
My mum and May are both no longer with us. Mum passed a couple of years ago and May has been gone a long time now. However, I can so vividly remember running from school to the newsagent and then to her house, sitting laughing away to myself with those issues while eating her fancy foil-wrapped Viscount biscuits. I can remember reading the Halloween issue and hearing them discuss whether I still believed in Santa or not, thinking I was too engrossed to listen, and confirming nine-year-old me’s suspicions that year.
This resulted in me searching my parents’ bedroom a few weeks before Christmas, not for the toys I’d asked from Santa but for The OiNK! Book 1988. I’d seen it sitting on the display table in the newsagent for a couple of months and now my excitement was spilling over. It was my most anticipated present that year. I remember my fingers stumbling across the brown paper bag underneath their wardrobe and pulling that grinning pig face out from within it! I didn’t read it. I didn’t want to ruin Christmas Day, instead it was the thrill of finding it and the excitement of knowing it was in the house, waiting.
By this time OiNK stickers were adorning my headboard, wardrobe, cupboards and the family fridge. The massive calendar poster that came with my first few issues of the comic took pride of place on my bedroom wall. That Christmas Eve I sat in bed, empty stocking by my feet, reading the first Christmas issue for the umpteenth time, so much better than a cartoon movie or classic festive tale from one of my books. I repeated this the next Christmas Eve too, and I remember being somewhat heartbroken the year after that with no new issue to see in the most exciting night of the year (after OiNK had been cancelled in 1988).
OiNK #14 (top of this post) was my first. I can’t remember why I was scanning the comics shelves but Jeremy Banx’s cover made me laugh and that big, bright pink logo excited me for what was inside. My dad also passed the same year as my mum and since then a fresh memory of my first issue has come flooding back. I can remember us trying our best to solve the riddle of the murder mystery page together, then dad giving up and checking the answer only to laugh as he realised we would never have got it! I ended up cheating and checking the answer myself in bed that night, trying to work it out way past when I should’ve been asleep. (Here it is below, the answer is in #14’s review.)
After I moved out of home my dad wanted to gut out a lot of the stuff I’d left behind, so I had to choose a few issues of each comic series I’d collected as a kid to keep. For OiNK I chose the first weekly, the last issue and of course that book. These copies are still the ones I have today. That book in particular is a cherished item and one I’ll never part with, not only because of how funny it is but for the personal memories attached to it.
For example, I remember during the 1987 Christmas holidays showing the cover off to any family friend that came to visit, eagerly anticipating their reaction as I turned it over to show them the rear. (Literally the rear.) “Oh, he has to show you this first,” my mum would say to everyone, laughing before offering them a cuppa and telling me to go and play. These are the sorts of memories that I treasure, and they’re still as clear as a bell in my mind thanks to their association with OiNK. Unfortunately I couldn’t find any photos of that Christmas, so here’s one from a good few years earlier and the cover in question. I definitely got my love of the season from mum.
Some individual characters and strips played a huge role in my growing years. Tom Thug helped me laugh at a school bully in my later teen years, a funny rhyming strip about a popular girl with bad dental care scared me into brushing my teeth before bed every night, the comic’s anti-smoking Madvertisements were the bane of my parents’ lives for a while, Horace (Ugly Face) Watkins gave me the strength to stand up to friends who decided to pick on a new kid at school, I made friends in my new scary grammar school partly through showing some 2000AD fans the Judge Pigg strips… the list goes on and on.
Throughout the real time read through there are examples of reactions from myself or friends to some of OiNK’s contents. One set of reactions elicits such funny memories that I’ll retell it here. I asked my dad if I could have The OiNK ! 45, the vinyl record with The OiNK! Song, The OiNK! Rap and Frank Sidebottom’s OiNK! Get Together Song. Little did I know how atrocious these would sound to my now-adult ears. Of course, at ten-years-old I loved that about them! My parents’ horrific reactions were genuine, but then they’d start to exaggerate and it became so funny to hear them pretend-scream from three floors down.
That was only half the story. Unfortunately for me (very fortunately for them) the excruciating sounds were short-lived. I went out to play with friends one day and, while it was the autumn and not exactly warm, my bedroom was on the top floor with a skylight. The autumn sun streamed in, the glass heating up the spot on the bed beneath it, right where I’d left the record without its cardboard sleeve. I was devastated to come home and find it badly warped and beyond use. Seeing a way out from the torture my mum and dad both laughed when they saw it and told me they wouldn’t order another after I’d been so careless with it. However, upon seeing my disappointment they asked what other OiNK things were for sale and a few weeks later I very happily received my mug.
There’s a whole other story about that cup and how it ended up linking me with the comic in a way I simply could never have imagined! But you can read about that elsewhere.
Originally I thought this post would be a way of sharing some memories of reading the comic as a child, highlighting favourite moments from its run that I never forgot enjoying 40 years ago. However, as I began to write I soon found OiNK was triggering all of these very personal thoughts, especially of mum and dad. I was going to publish the post at some point over the next month or so but as these memories came flooding back, and as I’ve found myself equally missing my parents and smiling at the funny moments with them, I’ve decided to post it today on the big anniversary of #1.
I can’t think of any better way to mark the 40th anniversary of OiNK. Thank you to the whole OiNK team for the memories; not just the memories of your work but also those you created in the lives of your readers. I’ll be eternally grateful to you all for these moments with my loved ones that’ll forever be fresh in my mind thanks to OiNK.
Today way back in 1991, Brian Williamson’s and Nick Abadzis’ cover to The Real Ghostbusters #47 and Art Wetherell’s for Transformers and Visionaries #216 were shining bright from newsagent shelves across the UK. As far as I’m concerned, together they make quite the impact.
I’ve mentioned recently how I’m currently watching Doctor Who from the very beginning and have been for nearly two years. Before I began, I took somewhat less time to enjoy every episode of Grand Designs on Channel 4 (resulting in me beginning to pay for it so I didn’t have any ads while doing so – bliss) and one of Kevin McCloud’s rules is never cut down grand old trees. Advice Egon should’ve followed and he might not have ended up being turned into his favourite fungi.
I really enjoyed these split screen Transformers covers, highlighting the new story format inside. It’s a shame they didn’t do more of them because over the next 100 issues there were some great double-bills I’d loved to have seen presented on the cover this way. Inside, there’s news of the first UK stories to be created specifically for the new five-page black and white strips. I think it would’ve eased the blow for some long-time readers if they’d waited until they were ready to change the comic’s make up.
Race With the Devil was memorable for two reasons. The first being Andrew Wildman’s depiction of a team of archeologists who were very similar to the stars of the sister comic in the photo above. The second was it ending on the reanimated corpse of Starscream. That image stayed with me for decades! Check it out at the link below. The trouble with having three stories now of course means there’s less room for details of each in the checklist, which is a shame because it’s a blinder of an issue.
Last week’s Action Force Monthly and Thundercats instalments remain for obvious reasons, while the only new entry is another monthly title which’ll most likely also be stuck here for a few more checklists. This issue’s slapstick humour perfectly complimented the action and wry wit of Death’s Head, making it one of the funniest issues of the run, which was no small feat.
We’re in the middle of a bit of a dry spell as far as comics adverts go and this continues next week, but don’t despair they’ll be back soon to tug at the ol’ grey cells.
Prepare to feel very old, for 2026 is OiNK’s 40th anniversary! That’s right, 40 years since we met the likes of Uncle Pigg, Tom Thug, Horace ‘Ugly Face’ Watkins, Psycho Gran, Burp and Ham Dare. Four decades! To help us original pig pals through this difficult time the OiNK Blog has a myriad of posts planned to celebrate, beginning with five throughout the comic’s original launch window. There’ll also be three celebrating a certain celebrity phenomenon the following month, a certain infamous anniversary later this summer and a series of posts to see us through all the issues’ 40th birthdays.
As each post is published it’s name will turn into a piggy pink link below
The day of writing this post is the anniversary of OiNK’s Preview edition, then we’ll kick things off on the 40th anniversary of the first proper issue. That’s when I’ll be writing about my own personal Piggin’ Awesome Memories and why OiNK is such an important part of my life. I’ve talked to many others about their personal memories of the comic, it’s about time I shared mine on Sunday 3rd May 2026. Then the following week comes Germs, a pre-OiNK comic created by co-editor Mark Rodgers and writer Graham Exton while at university. Its contents even included precursors to actual OiNK characters. You could say it was a preview of things to come and the whole shebang will be here to enjoy on Saturday 9th May.
In the same month there’ll be two special behind-the-scenes posts. The first, Crazy Weeds, looks at the original versions of Weedy Willy and Roger Rental as created (and drawn) by Graham. That’ll be published on Saturday 16th May. Then you’ll get to see the original art for Davey Jones’ Mad Monk strip alongside some of the originals Davy Francis very kindly gave me years back, which also included some from other artists. A closer look at The Making of Mirth will be up on Saturday 23rd May.
On Saturday 30th May I’ll be chatting to Claire Bend and Robert Reed of Bread and Butter Films. Why would I want to do that as part of OiNK’s birthday celebrations? Well, what if I told you they were currently putting together a mini OiNK documentary? One in which they’ve spoken to a bunch of OiNK contributors (and a certain blogger) and that they’re in the editing stage already? Excited? Then be sure to check out my chat with the duo on Saturday 30th May!
The celebrations will continue into the summer and beyond. During June and July you’ll get three doses of OiNK’s megastar himself, Frank Sidebottom. It all begins on Sunday 21st June with his special appearance in OiNK publisher Fleetway’s Thunderbirds The Comic in the 1990s. Then for the next two Saturdays watch out for some movie reviews! Namely, both the Being Frank documentary and the Frank movie. I haven’t seen either yet so I’m looking forward to catching up with them at last on Saturday 27th June and Saturday 4th July respectively.
At the end of July I’ll be delving into an infamous moment in OiNK’s history. The brilliant Janice and John spoof children’s tale in #7 prompted a complaint to the Press Council. It would be brushed aside in the end and OiNK celebrated the fact in a later issue but despite that it still led a certain defunct newsagent chain to top-shelf the comic. Sometimes OiNK contributor and Mark Rodgers’ partner, Helen Jones sent me the correspondence between the complainant, publisher IPC and the OiNK editors so it should be a fascinating insight into The OiNK Complaint on Saturday 26th July.
Finally for the blog itself there’ll be a new series that’ll mark the 40th anniversary of the whole run, right the way through to the final issues in October 2028. The new Grunts series began with a celebrity special last Christmas (2025), and if Uncle Pigg ever chose you to appear in the world’s greatest comic you’ll not want to miss these! Every three months I’ll be collecting together all of your reader contributions. These didn’t start appearing until #5 so the series will begin three months after that on Sunday 20th September 2026. I may never have written in but I’m looking forward to this series, and I’m positive there’ll be plenty of you out there that are too.
Don’t forget to follow the OiNK Blog on socials via the links in the menu at the top of the page. Over the next couple of years every single issue will be highlighted on their original release dates with their covers and direct links to their reviews. Perfect if you’d like to relive the entire run in real time for yourself over its 40th anniversary years.
Happy Birthday OiNK! You don’t look a day over 39.
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